Posted: October/16/2007 at 02:58 | IP Logged

Hi,

I had no problem with my Outlook Express Mail, as it was working fine from past 2 years. I had lots of unwanted messages which I wanted to clean up, so I agreed to compact my OE files when prompted.  

For my bad luck, now my Inbox is empty!!! I need to recover those files very badly.  

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

Posted: October/16/2007 at 03:06 | IP Logged

Hi Kara,

Well, before giving you the solution let me give you some details about compacting OE folders, as exactly what happens when you compact your *.dbx folders.

When you delete a message, Outlook Express does not actually remove an item from a *.dbx file instead it merely tags the item for removal at a later time, mainly when you compact your folders. Until then, the deleted message is still occupying disk space, which can cause OE to perform more slowly when accessing the *.dbx file. In order to recover disk space and keep your files as small as possible, you need to compact your folders regularly. So once you compact your *.dbx folders, deleted messages would be lost permanently.

If you are looking to recover any messages inside Inbox.dbx folder which you had deleted before compacting, I am sorry to tell you that, it would not be possible to recover those deleted messages. As by compacting the deleted mails would be permanently erased.

But in your case, the whole Inbox.dbx is empty which should happen. So in that particular scenario I would recommend you to use any Data Recovery Software especially Outlook Express Email Recovery Software, with which you would be able to recover your lost emails.

Let me know the results once you are through with the recovery.

Posted: October/16/2007 at 03:13 | IP Logged

Hi Aiyana,

Thank you for replying and providing me such useful information. Now I am clear as what exactly compacting is all about.

The messages which I am looking for were not deleted; they were present in my Inbox before I agreed for compacting. So hopefully I should be able to recover my messages.

But the problem is, I am not able to locate my *.dbx files. I don’t know where exactly these files are stored on my drive. Could you please help me with this?

Posted: October/16/2007 at 03:17 | IP Logged

Finding path should not be a problem at all. You have several means for finding the path of your *.dbx files.

Ideally the path should be %booting drive%/Documents & Settings/User or current profile/Local Settings/Application Data/Identities/Numbered folders/ Microsoft/Outlook/*.dbx files

But to be sure you can Open Outlook, go to tools menu and then select Options and then select Maintenance tab and click on the option Store folder. This would give you exact path to locate your DBX files, copy the path and paste to Windows Explorer and you would be right there at that folder.

Hope this helped you!

Posted: October/16/2007 at 03:25 | IP Logged

Thank you very much for your help!

Will give a try with the software and let you know the results.